The voice of the rod : a sermon preached on Thursday, June 1, 1865, in the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C.

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A SERMON

PREACHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 18G5,

^t B* iorli %kmu lixMnm (Cljurtb,

WASHINGTON, D. C,

The Rev. P. D. Gurlev, D. D.,

PASTOR OP THE CHMROH.

WASHINGTON, D. C. :

WILLIAM BALLANTYNE, BOOKSELLER.

1865.

898

CORRESPONDENCE.

Washington City, June 1, 1865.
Rev. P. D. Gurley, D.D..

Kev. and Dear Sir : At a meeting of the congregation to which you
minister, it was, on the motion of Brig. Gen. Eaton, seconded by Maj.
Gen. Casey, unanimously

Ecsolrcd, That the officers of the New York Avenue Presbyterian
Church be directed to request for publication a copy of the able and
singularly appropriate sermon delivered by our pastor, the Rev. P. D.
Cxurley, D. D., on this the day appointed by the President of the United
States as one of "humiliation and prayer."

The undersigned, officers of the New York Avenue Church, of Wash-
ington, saddened by the event — the assassination of our honored Chief
Magistrate, the late President Lincoln — which has made ours a nation
of mourners, and cordially endorsing the suggestive teachings which you,
as our under shepherd, called us in that connection this day to consider,
hasten to execute the expressed wish of your people, whose representa-
tives we are.

Hoping that you will, at an early day, place a copy of your discourse
at our disposal, that the important truths it contains may be more widely
disseminated, we are, very sincerely, your brethren,

JAMES P. TUSTIN,
J. McKENNEY,
JNO. M. McCALLA,
F. A. TSCHIFFELEY,
J. V. A. SHIELDS,
• JOS. A. DEEBLE,
WM. L. WALLER,
CHARLES STOTT,

Elders.

JAS. B. MUNRO,
GEO. J. MUSSER,
CAREY GWYNNE,

Deacons.
WILLIAM McLEAN,
JOSEPH W. NAIRN,

D. McClelland,

Trustees.

REPLY.

Washington, June 3, 1865.
To the Elders, iJeacons, and Trustees of the Neio York Avenue Presby-
terian Church .

Dear Brethken : Your kind note, requesting for publication a copy
of the sermon preached by me on Thursday last, is before me. I yield
to your judgment, and to the judgment of the congregation you repre-
sent, touching the propriety of giving the discourse to the public in a
printed form, and send j^ou a copy herewith, according to your request.
May the blessing of God attend it, is my sincere and earnest prayer.
What thrilling and momentous events we have recently been called to
contemplate! What a sore and sudden bereavement we have recently
been called to bear! God speaks to us as He never spoke before. Let
us study the lessons He is teaching us, study them prayerfully, and lay
them to our hearts.

Truly your friend and pastor, P. D. GURLEY.

SEPaiON.

" Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it." — Micah, vi, 9

God is a father. He stands iu that relationship to us. When we
approach Him as suppliants, He permits us to say " Our Father
who art in heaven." He performs towards us and for us the j^a^t
of a father — and oh, how wisely and well does He perform it !
He gives us food and raiment, shelter and protection, counsel and
guidance, education and discipline, comfort and blessing. Nay,
more: He gives us the rod of correction when we go astray;
gives it for our good, that He may remind us of our sins, re-
claim us from our wanderings, and incline us to walk more care-
fully and steadily in the way of his commandments, which is the
way of life and peace. The rod of correction and chastening —
our heavenly Father holds it in his hand, and He uses it betimes
for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. His
ancient people, in the midst of their waywardness and wander-
ings, felt that rod fi*om time to time — felt it often and severely —
and as they suffered beneath its heavy inflictions, this mandate
came to them from heaven : " Hear ye the rod, and who hath
appointed it." We, the people of this land, have felt that same
rod ; we, too, have felt it often and severely ; we have felt it re-
cently— how keenly we have felt it! — we feel it to-day; and as
ice bow, and weep, and suffer beneath its heavy inflictions — per-
haps, I should say, beneath that latest and heaviest infliction of
all, the death of our lamented Chief Magistrate — the mandate
which comes to us from heaven is this : " Hear ye the rod, and
who hath appointed it." The rod, then, is not a thing of chance.
It is an appointment — an appointment of God. It is applied in
his own time, which is the best time, and in his own way, which
is the best way. The great national afiiictiou which brings us
here to-day did not come forth of the dust ; the trouble that so

suddenly turned our gladness into mourning did not spring out
of the ground. It was the ordering of Him whose throne is in
the heavens, and whose kingdom ruleth over all. He appointed
the rod that smote us so unexpectedly. He struck the blow that
has clothed the nation in sackcloth. And we may depend upon
it that our views arc not right to-day, and our feelings are not
right, unless we are prepared to look through and beyond all the
second causes that operated in the case to the great First Cause,
and to say from our very hearts, " It is the Lord. The Lord
gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the
Lord." The text, moreovei", suggests that the rod of correction
is also a rod of instruction. It has a voice. It speaks. It teaches.
It proclaims timely lessons of wisdom and of warning, which we
are to consider and lay to our hearts. " Hear ye the rod," says
the Spirit of inspiration. Hear what it says. It is the voice, as
well as the hand, of God. While it smites it instructs. While
it bereaves it enriches. While it terrifies it also testifies. And
they that are wise will study its testimony, and understand it, and
derive such a blessing from it as will induce them to say in the
end, ''It is good for us that we have been afflicted."

It is ray simple purpose to-day to set before you, and urge you
to remember and improve, some of the lessons of wisdom and
warning which the chastening hand of God is now teaching us.
" Thar ye the. rod." And what is its language, its teaching, its
clear and impi-essive testimony ? I answer —

1. The rod of chastening which we feel to-day teaches us to
nck-noiclcdge and adore the sovereignty of God, He has smitten
us in a way and in such an hour as we thought not. Our late
President, by his administrative career of blended wisdom and
enei'gy, promptitude and patience, justice and mercy, had greatly
endeared himself to all the loyal people in the land. We had
learned to admire, and love, and ti'ust him. During four stormy
and perilous 3'ears ho had guided the ship of state so cautiously
and well that we desired to continue him at the helm for four
additional years ; and we felt that, having such a pilot, we should,
with the blessing of God, outlive the tempest and anchor at last
in tranquil waters, where the winds and waves of rebellion should
disturb and imperil us no more. Our eyes and hearts were

turned to liim. His integrity commanded our confidence, and
his wise and timely utterances stimulated our patriotism and in-
spired our souls witli hope. " May he live to the end of his
term — live till the wounds of the nation are healed," was the
silent prayer of our hearts. But Grod's ways are not as our ways,
and His thoughts are not as our thoughts. In His wise and
mysterious providence He permitted a conspiracy to be formed
against the life of the nation's head, and He permitted the pur-
pose of the conspirators to be executed. The plan was carefully
laid, the time appointed, the place chosen, the means of escape
prepared, and,, when all things were ready, the fatal shot was
fired, and he whom the nation delighted to trust and to honor,
bowed his head, languished in utter unconsciousness for a few
brief h6urs, and then he was a corpse. Never did the wires of
the magnetic telegraph convey so sad a message to the people of
the land as was conveyed on that memorable morning. They
heard it, and were filled with horror; they considered it, and
wept in silence. They were so troubled that they could not
speak. They met one another upon the street, clasped hands,
burst into tears, separated, and returned to their homes to weep
there. " The victory that day was turned into mourning unto
all the people ;" and as they looked through their tears, with
trembling hearts, to heaven, they could only say, " How un-
searchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out."
And surely this must be our feeling and our language to-day.
As we review the events of that terrible Friday night, that night
of horrors, and then look around us and see the nation clothed
in mourning, and then remember that long funeral procession
that bore the remains of our murdered Chief to Springfield, and
then feel that our bereavement is a reality and not a dream, that
he is verily gone, and we shall see his face no more, it must
needs be that we acknowledge and adore the sovereignty of Grod,
and that we understand as we never understood before the force
of such Scriptural records as these : " Our God is in the heavens j
He hath done whatsoever He pleased." " He doeth according to
His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth ; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest
Thou '/" '' How great are His signs ! and how mighty are His

wonders !" '' Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteous-
ness and judgment are the habitation of his throne." It is said
that when the multitudes were looking upon the remains of our
departed President in Philadelphia, a venerable and intelligent
colored won an came up, and having gazed for a moment upon the
faded form as it lay silent and lifeless in its coffin, she clasped her
hands in agony, while her tears were flowing fast, and exclaimed
with a loud voice, " 0, Abraham Lincoln I Are you dead ? Are
you dead ?" You may imagine, if you can, but I cannot under-
take to describe the effect of this exclamation upon all who heard
it. Many a time within the last few weeks have we all felt as she
felt, and our hearts, if not our lips, have said, " 0, Abraham Lin-
coln! Are you dead? Are you dead?" Yes, he is dead; and
his death has plunged us into the lowest depths of sorrow. But
our affliction is from God. '' Shall there be evil in a city, and the
Lord hath not done it ?" "What saith the High and Lofty One in
these Lively Oracles? "I form the light and create darkness; I
make peace and create evil ; I, the Lord, do all these things." And
again He says : " Hear the rod, and who liatli appointed it." In
several different places, as we pursued that sad and never-to-be-
forgotten journey to Springfield, did I see this touching and appro-
priate inscription : " Be still, and know that I am God " — showing
that under the pressure of sorrow the people were recognizing
and adoring the Divine sovereignty. Let us do the same to-day.
While we weep, let us bow and worship, and say to Him who has
smitten us, " We know, 0 God, that Thy judgments are right,
and that in faithfulness Thou hast afflicted us." Has the rod a
voice ? Does it speak ? Does it teach while it smites ? Sure
am I that a part, and an important part, of what it teaches us is
this : " Be still, and know that I am God."

2. The rod of chastening which we feel to-day teaches us the
duty of depending upon God icith an exclusive and an ahiding
confidence. Perhaps we were leaning too much upon our wise
and patriotic President. Perhaps our devotion to him and our
confidence in him were rendering us too unmindful of that High
and Holy and Mighty One in whom are all our springs, and with-
out whom we can do nothing. In the flush and joy of victory,
perhaps we forgot to acknowledge Him as we ought, to praise Him

as we ought, and to ask Him to be with us and help us to the end.
We rejoiced, but not with that trembling which became us in
view of our weakness, our wanderings, and our sins. We needed
something to arrest, and solemnize, and humble us — something to
lead us to feel as we had never felt before, and to acknowledge as
we had never acknowledged before, that the favor of God, even
after the battle had been fought and the victory won, was our only
security. And what we needed we received. The rod of chasten-
ing fell upon us suddenly, fearfully — and behold, the man to
whom we had extended so much of our confidence, and upon
whom we had centered such large and lively hopes, was no more.
It was a gloomy, an unlooked-for. a momentous, a perilous crisis.
And to whom could we go but unto Grod ? How helpless 'We felt I
how utterly in the hands and at the disposal of an overruling
Providence ! What a realizing sense we had in that hour of our
perils and our dependence I With humility, as well as grief, we
bowed before the Majesty of heaven, and every one of us said,
with deeper, stronger emotions than we had felt before, even in
the darkest days of our civil strife,

" Bly spirit looks to God .alone ;
My rock aud refuge is Ids throne ;
lu all niy fears, in all my straits,
5Iy soul on liis salvation waits."

So we felt when cmr trial first came, and, I trust, the solemn ser-
vices and remembrances of this day will but deepen and intensify
the feeling of utter dependence upon God in every one of our
hearts. Let us revert a moment to the history of the past. When
the war was opening, and our chosen leader was entering upon
hi§ grave and responsible duties, he recognized his dependence
upon God and solicited an interest in our praj-ers. And what did
we do ? AVe bore him earnestly and often before the throne of
mercy upon the arms of faith and love. All the .loyal and pray-
ing people in the land sent up their petitions for him day and
night with earnestness and tears Never before was any Presi-
dent so remembered and prayed for in the closet, the sanctuary,
and around the family altar; and never before was any President
so sustained, and guided, and made a blessing to his country, to
liberty, to the world. He lived till the war was over and the

2

victory gained, and then his work was done. And now another
stands in his place, to gather and preserve the legitimate fruits of
victor}'-, to repair abounding desolations, and re-establish our
lately imperilled nationality upon a sure and enduring foundation
— a foundation of liberty and righteousness, of unity and peace.
And what can we, what should we do for him ? Just what we
did for his distinguished predecessor. Acknowledge his depend-
ence and the nation's dependence upon God, and bear him up to
God day and night by faith and prayer, that an arm more than
human may sustain him, and a wisdom more than human may be
his guide. Yes, we must begin again now, just as we began four
years ago, by looking earnestly and prayerfully to God, and we
must continue now, just as we continued through the long and
bloody strife, looking earnestly and prayerfully to God, and we
must plead now for the new Pi-esidcnt just as we pleaded for the
late President, that God will furnish him for his mission, and
spare him till it be accomplished. And, if I mistake not, this is
a part of the teaching, the message, which comes to us to-day as
we weep in the furnace of trial. '^ Hear ye the rod," my breth-
ren. It speaks — speaks to the nation — speaks to us. And what
is its testimony ? It says, " Cease ye from man, whose breath is
in his nostrils ; for wherein is he to be accounted of ?" Ttsays,
" Trust ye in the Lord forever : for in the Lord Jehovah is ever-
lasting strength." It says, " Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
and he shall sustain thee." It says, " Continue in prayer." It
says, " Still acknowledge your dependence upon God, and still
commit the nation, with its rulers, and people, and all its precious
interests, unto Him, and He will fikish the work of deliverance,
and ordain peace, and continue to do great things for you whereof
you shall be glad." It is even so. Unless we have studied the
matter to no purpose, the rod of chastening which we feel to-day
is teaching us renewedly the duty of depending upon God and
waiting before Him as suppliants with an exclusive and an abid-
ing confidence.

8. Again, the rod of chastening which we feel to-da}' suggests
to us that ivhcn a great mission is to be accomplished /or God and
humanity, it is sometimes necessary that he who accomplishes it
shoidd also seal it icith his hlood. History is full of illustrations

11

of this thought. We refer you to two or three : Abel had a '
mission to acoamplish-r-a momentous mission. It was to exhibit,
in the infancy of the world and to all the subsequent ages, the
great doctrine of justification by faith in the blood of atone-
ment— the great truth that there is no acceptance for sinners'
with God unless they come to Him in the name and through the
merits of Him who is the divinely appointed sacrifice for sin,
wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities.
He understood this principle; he embraced it; he adhered to it
in the face of peril and persecution. But this was not enough.
It was necessary that he should seal it with his blood.
He did so seal it; and that sealing gave it an impress of power
beyond the ability of man to estimate. John the Baptist had a
mission — ^a momentous mission. It was fo prepare the way of
the Lord, to tell the Jewish people their sins, exhort them to
repentance, baptize them with water as a symbol of needed
spiritual purification, and proclaim in their hearing, " He that
cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not
worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and
with fire." He performed his duty, performed it boldly, earn-
estly, and well. But that was not enough. It was necessary
that he should seal his mission with his blood. He did so seal it;
and that .sealing gave it an influence over the minds and hearts
of men which it could have derived from no other source.
Stephen hatl a mission— a moiiifintous mission. It was to testify
for Christ iiiJerusalem, and before the Jewish Sanhedrim. It
was to defend the inauguration of the new, the Christian dispen-
sation, and show that the teachings of the Apostles respecting it
were in exact and beautiful harmony with all the teachings of
God, and all his dealings with the Church from the beginning.
He bore his testimony boldly, faithfully. But that was not enough.
It was necessary that he should seal it with his blood. He did so
seal it. And who shall tell us how much that sealing had to
do with the subsequent spread and triumph of the gospel? All
the Apostles had a mission — a glorious mission of power, and
love, and blessing to the world. They told the story of the cross;
they proclaimed the character and urged the claims of the
Crucified in the hearing of Jews and Gentiles; they besought

12

men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God; they were fearless
and faithful in all their ministry, and they shunned not to
declare unto sinners " all the counsel of God." But that was
not enough. They, too, must seal their mission with their blood.
^yith perhaps a single exception they did so seal it. And
who shall tell us how much that sealing had to do with the
renowned and subsequent victories of Christianity in every part
of the Roman Empire ? All the martyrs of the early Church had a
mission — a blessed mission. They also were witnesses for Christ.
They loved Ilini, they honored Ilim, they clung to Him, and they
could not deny Ilim. But that was not enough. They must seal
their testimony with their blood. Thoy did so seal it. And the
effects of that sealing were so beneficent and abounding that it
soon became a proverb in Zion, " The blood of the martyrs is
the seed of the Church." It was precious seed; God blessed
the springing thereof, and it yielded a long succession of harvests
to the praise of the glory of His grace. In all these ipstances
the sealing of blood completed the antecedent mission of truth
and love, sanctified it, crowned it with glory, and made it precious,
memorable, and powerful forever. Is not the same thing true,
manifestly true, in the case of our murdered President? He,
too, had a mission — a momentous mission; a mission for liberty,
for humanity, for his country, and his God. God raised him up
for it, prepared him for it, gave him wisdom and energy, and
firmness and patience to accomplish it — permitted him to see the
end of the war, the end of slavery, and the dawning glories of a
brighter and a better day. But that was not enough. He, too,
must seal his mission with his blood. He did so seal it. And
that sealing has sanctified it, crowned it with glory, and made it
precious, memorable, and powerful forever. That sealing attaches
sanctity now to all that he ever said and did for the cause of
truth and justice, of law and order, of liberty and good govern-
ment. It imparts a new power to his example and life, uev/
interest to his speeches and proclamations, a new value to every
principle he announced and defended ; and it inspires every
patriotic heart in the land with a new and a firmer resolve that
the Republic shall live, and that its bondsmen shall be free.
Nay, more : that sealing has attracted the gaze and moved the

13

heart of the world. Surrounding nations have seen it, and while
their sympathies are aroused for a weeping people so suddenly
Ijereft of their wise and honored head, they will not forget the
cause for which he died. They will now consider the claims of
that cause as they never considered tliem before, and judge be-
tween it and its enemies as they never judged before, and rejoice
with us, that though our President is dead, liberty survives, and
our national life is secure. Many eyes in distant lands are turned
in tearful sympathy to-day towards that new-made grave iu
Springfield. They will be turned there for years and years to
come 5 and we may well say, as we gather in imagination arouud
that loved and lonely tomb,

"This consecrated spot shall be
To Freedom ever dear;
And Freedom's sous of every race
Shall weep and worehip here."

Many hearts in distant lands are with us to-day as we mourn our
martyred Chief, and they unite with us in the petition,

" Grant that the cause for which ho died
May live forevermore."

And if it be true, my hearers, that the blood of our assassinated
President is the seed of liberty and truth, and that our loss is
gain to the cause he loved and served so well — then, while we
mourn to-day, we should not murmur, and, while we weep, we
should not complain. " Hear ye the rod ;" and remember one of
its lessons is, that icJien a great viission is to be accomplished for
God and Immanify, it is sometimes necessary, in order to secure
the largest and lest resxdts therefrom, that he u-ho accomplishes it
should also seal it tcith his blood.

4. Again, the chastening rod which we feel to-day suggests to
us tchat is the real, tendency/, and ichat are the diabolical cajpa-
bilities and achievements of that combined spirit of treasoti and
slavery icith ichich ice have been contending for the last four years.
We have seen it strike at the life of the nation with a malicious
and a persistent vigor that filled us with wonder. We have seen
it madly bent upon the overthrow, at any and every cost, of the
mildest and best government the world ever saw. We have seen
it, for this very purpose, inaugurating and cruelly protracting a

14

war tliat has filled the land with mourning. We have seen it
chanting the praises of slavery and declaring it to be the great
mission of the South to keep four millions of human beings, with
their descendants, in bondage. We have seen it cursing and de-
nouncing and laboring to desti'oy a Union of States, which, under
God, has placed us in the foremost rank of free and prosperous
nations. We have seen it commissioning incendiaries to burn
our largest cities in the night. We have seen it leaving our iin-
fortunate and sufieriug prisoners without food and shelter till
they died, or sending them back to us in such a condition, physi-
cal and mental, that it were a relief to see them die. And now
at the last we have seen it cap the climax of all its crimes and
atrocities by assassinating the man whose lips and life were vocal
with the utterance, " With malice towards none, with charity for
all." It is enough. The blindest can see now, and all the world
can see, that the spirit with which we have been contending is
the very spirit of darkness and of the pit of darkness. It began
with perjury and theft; it culminated in murder; and now, a
spectacle and a horror to the world, its true character revealed,
and its infernal origin and destination demonstrated, nothing re-
mains for it but a few expiring struggles and a death that will fill
both earth and heaven with joy. Thanks be to God who has
given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ ! Thanks be
to God that the blow which prostrated the President was the last
desperate effort of a defeated fiend, who, having failed to kill the
nation, could only kill the nation's head, and thereby render his
own destruction the more sure and speedy. " Hear ye the rod."
It unmasks the enemy with which we have been contending, re-
veals the fearfulness of the perils we have escaped, the value of
the victory we have won, and bids us look up to-day and say to
the God of our salvation with hearts deeply and tenderly thank-
ful, " Not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give
glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake."

5. Finally, the rod of chastening which we feel to-day suggests
a lesson touching the character and influence of the theatre, which
we should note and remember. It will always be a matter of deep
regret to thousands that our lamented President fell in the theatre ;
that the dastardly assassin found him, shot him there. Multitudes

15

of his best friends — I mean his Christian friends — would have
preferred that he should have fallen in almost any othet place.
Had he been murdered, in his bed, or in his oflSce, or on the
street, or on the steps of the Capitol, the tidings of his death
would not have struck the Christian heart of the country quite so
painfully ; for the feeling of that heart is that the theatre is one of
the last places to which a good man should go, and among the very
last in which his friends would wish him to die. Little or nothing
has been said upon this subject in the pulpit or by the religious
press; but it is one of the eases in which silence is more expressive
than words, and, therefore, I shall say no more. T ask you, how-
ever, to consider this : when a murderous conspiracy has been
formed, and the assassination of the President has been resolved
upon, and the conspirators are looking for a suitable person to
perform the dreadful deed, to strike the fatal blow, or fire the
fatal shot, where do they find him ? Who is the man they select ?
To whom is the dark and hellish work committed ? To a man
schooled and' trained in the fhea/re. He is just the agent suited
to the occasion, just the bold, and daring, and practiced actor,
who can steal behind his victim, skilfully lodge the fatal bullet
in his brain, bound quickly and adroitly away, stalk defiantly
across the stage, brandish a dagger, shout ^'Sic semper ttjraU'
nis,''' and mysteriously disappear. Just what we might ex-
pect from such a character, trained in such a place, maddened
with disloyalty, heated with liquor, and M.secZ to the exciting and
tragic scenes of the theatre. Surely a place where such men are
trained and fitted for such atrocious deeds of death is not a proper
resort for you, my hearers, or for those you love. For my own
part, I have always regarded the theatre as in the main a school
of vice and corruption — the illumined and decorated gateway
through which thousands are constantly passing into the embrace
of gaiety and folly, intemperance and lewdness, infamy and ruin.
I have always hated and avoided it, and taught my children to
avoid it, on account of its character and influence, its associations
and accompaniments, its misleading, corrupting, and demoral-
izing tendencies; but henceforth it will be more odious to me
than ever before. Jlay it be odious to you. I deem this a suita-
ble occasion to lift my voice against it, and to exhort you to num-
ber it from this day forth among the polluting, perilous, and pro-

hibited places where you and your children must never be found.
And as for yonder building stained with the blood of him for
whom the nation mourns to-day, let Aceldama be written upon
its walls, and let it stand for years to come as it now stands,
silent, gloomy, forlorn, more like a sepulchre than a place of
amusement, saying to all the passers-by, " Here the greatest crime
of the age was committed, and 'committed by one who was ad-
dicted to tragedy and had made the stage his home."

And now, having considered some of the lessons which God is
teaching us hy the voice of the rod, let us unite in the prayer that
these lessons may be sanctified and made a blessing to us all.
May they be sanctified to rulers and people, to all the people, to
all our rulers from the highest to the lowest, so that we shall be
the better and not the worse for our sudden and sore bereavement.
What wo need now, and what the whole country needs, is an in-
fluence from above — a season of refreshing from the presence of
the Lord. This, more than anything else, will heal alienations,
soften down asperities, lead the guilty to repentance, bege£ in the
hearts of all a spirit of kindness and conciliation, of forgiveness
and love, and hasten that blessed day when revolted States shall
return to their allegiance, and we shall be once more a united and
happy people. We have received a baptism of blood, copious,
protracted, tei'rible ; 0 that it may be followed, and that right
eai-ly, by the precious and purifying baptism of the Holy Spirit.
" Come, Holy Spirit, come " — come to every heart and habitation
in the land, and do us the good we need. Brethren, join me to-
dayWn the prayer of the Pi'ophet and of Inspiration : " 0 Lord,
revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the
years make known ; in wrath remember mercy." " Wilt Thou
not revive us again, that Thy people may rejoice in Thee V
" Return, 0 Lord, how long ? and let it repent Thee concerning
Thy servants. 0 satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may
rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the
days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we
have seen evil. Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants and Thy
glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our
God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us ;
yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it." Amen and Amen.